2016 ELECTION/HOUSE OF REPS/INTELLIGENCE/POLITICAL FIGURES: “House conservatives are demanding the public release of a memo spearheaded by Rep. Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, detailing allegations of FBI missteps during the 2016 election — a move that Democrats say is an effort to torpedo special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign by discrediting FBI work central to his inquiry.
The full House can now see classified intelligence usually reserved for only the handful of lawmakers with the highest security clearance. That access comes after the intelligence panel voted along party lines to let all members read in a classified setting the four-page summary of the Nunes investigation into the FBI and Justice Department’s use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. Democrats accused the GOP of hastily allowing members to access intelligence information that even most members of Nunes’ own committee did not have access to, saying it presented a skewed version of events.
But House conservatives who have reviewed the report say the American public would be shocked to learn about what they believe is widespread abuse by the FBI — and are so dead-set in demanding its public release they called on House Speaker Paul Ryan to release the memo as a condition for supporting a continuing resolution to keep the government open past Friday. Ryan, sources said, deferred to Nunes.”
-Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb, “Nunes’ FBI memo becomes conservative rallying cry,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Jan. 19, 2018 06:52pm